Sooo I've been posting regularly on here for a few months on a throw-away account but in celebration of my first endocrinologist appointment I am making a new one with a better, more personal username that won't be associated with some past posts about my history. Thank you to everyone who participates in this subreddit! I never, ever would have had the courage to go through with this and I would no doubt have floundered while trying to figure out the process on my own. In a few weeks I will have my prescription and be all set to start. I'm excited, but really scared that after all of this time it's actually happening now. My endo seems downright lovely and does pellets too and doesn't charge any more than they cost too! The coming out/path to hormones was nmuch easier than I thought it would be, and I'm pretty stoked. I know that I'm very lucky in this regard but I think that the resistance I met on the part of friends and family was pretty minimal compared to the nightmare I thought it would be. I came out a to a few months ago to close friends and family, and I would highly recommend that instead of waiting until being on HRT. Of course not everyone is the same and a lot of people in less liberal areas or less liberal friends/family than I have should be careful but I think the biggest common theme while coming out to people one by one was that it was overwhelming to them. I am very glad that I did it before starting HRT, as it gave them time to adjust to the idea instead of having it dumped on them at once. It was bad of course because there's no easy way to come out, but all in all you only have to reveal it once and I think doing it on hormones would have made it much harder and I'm glad I didn't.

I'll probably have to give up surfing for quite a while, but that's a small price to pay to feel right in my own body =). I am looking forward to a long future in the reddit trans community, and I promise I will be of service to the rest of you and future members with the experience I'll soon gain! Love you all! <3

P.S.
I know that this isn't a question and that this belongs more in /r/transspace or /r/transpositive, but those links aren't on the sidebar so I don't think all of the people who need the encouragement on here know about them.